WHO'S THE "OHIO CITIZENS' LEAGUE"? On Tuesday Channel 5 ran a story about the newest petition to reduce the size of Cleveland City Council. The sponsoring group is something called the "Ohio Citizens' League", represented in the WEWS piece by a guy named Pete Kirsanow.

There's no such organization in the Cleveland phone book. Google finds nothing for "Ohio Citizens' League" but rehashes of the WEWS story and another, shorter one from Channel 3. But a search of the Secretary of State's nonprofit corporation database yields the following:

The Ohio Citizen's League was incorporated less than six months ago, in May 2005, though the name was reserved in 2004. Its three incorporators were Thomas T. George, 18605 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood; Michael E. Gibbons, 1111 Superior Avenue, Suite 900, Cleveland; and Peter N. Kirsanow, 2300 BP Tower, 200 Public Square, Cleveland.

Gibbons is Senior Managing Director and Chairman of Brown Gibbons Lang & Company, a major Republican donor, and a resident of Fairview Park.

"Thomas T. George" is Tony George, the millionaire Lakewood restaurant owner and political player (18605 Detroit is the address of his Harry Buffalo bar), who apparently lives in Westlake.

Kirsanow is a partner at Benesch Friedlander, a controversial Bush appointee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and a national activist and spokesman for Republicanism in the black community. Unlike the other two incorporators, Mr. Kirsanow lives in Cleveland, which probably explains why he's the public face of the petition campaign.

These are the guys leading the charge for less direct, face-to-face representation of Cleveland citizens at City Hall. Kind of makes you think, doesn't it?

(John Ryan blogged his suspicions on Tuesday.)